Fiji in mid to late September

[mrrworld]

Looking for advice on diving in Fiji in mid to late September. It seems kind of confusing or maybe information overload when i do an internet search. We will have about one week or so. Am interested in opinions about best diving locations, LB vs land operators, etc. For this trip, I think i prefer a land operator unless I am really missing out on a LB.

Also, with the recent cyclone, is it worth going or does Fiji need more time to recover? Anyone dive there recently? On one hand, I imagine their economy could use the tourism dollars but on the other hand, I don't want to be diving and enjoying myself while all around me people are really struggling to get their lives back together.

As far as type of diving, my wife and I just like to dive. I will take a few pictures with a point and shoot camera just for the fun of it. Happy to get wet and seeing big or small things, coral, etc. especially things we have not seen before. I usually don't like stage managed events so not sure if the shark dives is a must (and I have done this before in the bahamas) but let me know if I am crazy for missing this type of a dive.

Thanks everyone.

 

[mmmbelows]

Fiji has all kinds of diving experiences to offer, with different scales of effort to do them, different scales of success doing them and different scales of costs to do them. For instance some of the best diving in the world is out off of Namena. The effort to dive there is on the far end of the scale, it takes a couple of planes and boat rides to get to the island. The diving around Beqa is good, good is the scale comparing it to Fiji, it would be great comparing it to the Caribbean, the effort and expense to dive Beqa is on the low end and the simple end. A live-a-board gets you to some of the best diving Fiji has to offer, possibly including a day at Namena, but it's a live-a-board experience.

You always start by flying into the main island, from there it's either a car/van ride to your location or a boat or a plane or a combination of all three, just depends on what you are after. A lot of the more remote and upper end experiences for diving require a lot of effort and or luck. Beqa is on the south portion of the main island and is cheaper and easier to reach, this is where the shark diving is and the diving is very focused on the shark diving, they do 'soft coral' dives (all other dives that aren't the shark dives) there too. On the northern reaches of the main island is Raki Raki area with some access to some of the premiere dive sites (bligh waters) however, there is a limited hit and miss success rate of actually diving them. Then there are all the smaller and larger islands around the main island, all offering somewhat unique experiences for staying and diving. I'd suggest spending a good portion of time reading about the different regions to stay in Fiji, Fiji can take a little while to figure out for the first time. But budget and effort are a prime consideration, anything on the main island will be relatively less expensive and easy to access, after that the price and effort goes up, sometimes dramatically. How much effort and how much money do you want to spend, or are you looking for easy and cheaper? You'll find the majority of people have Fiji experiences involving Beqa because it's easy and on the cheaper end, you'll find few to no people with staying out on Namena experiences to share because it's really expensive and really time consuming to get to.

 

[JulieM]

Namena Island Resort was totally destroyed during Cyclone Winston. However, I would recommend Nakia Eco Resort on Taveuni. They also operate Taveuni Ocean Sports. Check tripadvisor reviews. They are spot on accurate. We have been there three times. You will not be sorry!

 

[diver 85]

Our trip to Fiji was in latter September--'10 I believe....Perfect weather the whole trip........Did Beqa Lagoon------top to bottom everything was great, even got in 2 Tiger Sharks on the shark dive......